Villagers living on the upper slopes of
Mount Merapi, Indonesia's most active volcano, are being urged to prepare
for evacuation after authorities warned that a major eruption may be imminent
following heightened seismic activity.

The government has ignored calls for an
independent inquiry into ongoing violence and terror attacks in Central
Sulawesi and instead decided to form a new security command in the province.
The result so far?

The team of foreign monitors overseeing
the peace process in Aceh province has welcomed the Indonesian government's
initial provision of economic welfare payments to former separatist rebels.

In a press release issued October 12,
the Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM) said the government had successfully
completed the first installment of allocations of Rp1 million (about $100)
per person to 3,000 former Free Aceh Movement (GAM) fighters.

AMM said the payments were made throughout
the province over the past week.

The Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) says
it has prepared a contingency plan in the eventuality that the peace deal
between the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) is scuttled by
the rebels.

TNI commander General Endriartono on
Thursday (8/9/05) claimed a splinter group of GAM would not abide by the
terms of the August 15 memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the peaceful
settlement of the Aceh conflict.

"The problem TNI has in implementing
the MoU is the existence of a GAM splinter group that will not carry out
the peace agreement consistently," he was quoted as …